Fans of last year's Olympic rowing trial between Mahe Drysdale and Rob Waddell could see action of a similar magnitude on the banks of Lake Karapiro by late February.

That's likely to be when selected hopefuls will trial for the first world championships on New Zealand shores in 32 years.

It will be no surprise if Waddell returns to the water after demonstrating over the past two years that he can still make a boat move. However, the selection conundrums now drive much deeper.

Logic suggests that with Eric Murray, 27, and Hamish Bond, 23, as the new men's pair world champions, they will remain as incumbents. But, as Drysdale found out before the Beijing Games trials, no one is safe.

The Olympic bronze medal-winning men's pair of Nathan Twaddle and George Bridgewater is one area of debate.

The 33-year-old Twaddle is keen to move into a sculling crew or a bigger sweep oar boat, saying he and Bridgewater squeezed everything they could out of the pair together.

Should he choose to, you can imagine the 26-year-old Bridgewater still has plenty to add to his CV, which now also boasts a win in The Boat Race with Oxford, as well as an MBA.

However, Bridgewater, is reluctant to commit to rowing next year with employment opportunities on the horizon.

"There are a lot of transitions in my life now," he says from Oxford.

"I'm growing up a bit. Building to Beijing, I was single-mindedly focused on rowing and that's the way it has to be.

"Ultimately I'd like to win an Olympic gold medal, that's the biggest aspiration in my career to date, but I'd have to look objectively at that, if or when I come back."

But one precedent is not lost on him.

"We saw Rob Waddell do it last year with six to seven months' training and he was putting in some of the world's best performances on the erg machine. But it's something I'll only know in time."

Bridgewater's prepared to open a gentlemanly door to the incumbent world champions.

"I don't have my future pegged to their success. I knew they were always going to be a good pair because we'd raced them in New Zealand before and they were fast."

Buoyed by the lustre of gold around his neck, Murray welcomes an on-the-water stoush next year.

"At the moment, the pair's where we'll look to stay. If they [Bridgewater and Twaddle] do come back for another crack - good on them. It makes the competition stronger."